Low Carb Zucchini Fries

"A baked zucchini fry with crushed almonds replacing bread crumbs makes a very light, tasty dish. Zucchini are prepped first to get rid of extra liquid so they do not become soggy in the oven. Like having fried food without the oil."

Directions

Cut zucchini into 3-inch lengths, then cut each piece into 9 fries. Place zucchini fries into a colander and sprinkle with salt. Let the zucchini pieces drain for at least 1 hour to remove excess liquid.

Beat eggs in a shallow bowl. Mix almonds, Parmesan cheese, and Italian seasoning in a second shallow bowl. Rinse salt off zucchini and pat dry with paper towels.

Dip each zucchini piece into beaten egg and roll in the almond coating. Place coated fries on prepared baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven until the zucchini are tender and the coating is crisp and browned, about 25 minutes, turning them halfway through cooking time.

Most Helpful Positive Review

Sep 30, 2012

Delicious! I salted and re-salted these and let them sit for a few hours while doing other things in the kitchen. I put them on a cookie cooling rack over a sheet pan so the water could drip out. I turned them and salted again. I squeezed all the extra water out with paper towels. I didn't rinse them as instructed. I I felt like that would make them wet again. I hand grated the parmesan and used nutritional yeast instead of ground almonds -not quite a half cup. My oven had been on a long time so it was nice and toasty. These came out perfectly! A delicious low carb craving satisfier!

Most Helpful Critical Review

Sep 03, 2012

My family requested to have these again. They loved them! The only thing that I need to figure out is how to make them a little more firm. They got kind of soggy and they stuck to the pan so the crispy bottoms came off and stuck.

If you are seriously counting carbs, pay attention to the recipe servings listed. This recipe is for 6 servings, so one serving would only be 3/8ths of a zucchini for 4.5 grams of carbs. Great recipe for those of us on Atkins who are missing fried junk food...

This recipe was good, but wasn't quite what I expected. In my opinion the herbs were too much, I am going to cut down on them by 25% or so next time. Or maybe even use fresh herbs instead of dried. It's possible I did something wrong as I did bake about 5 minutes longer than specified here (my oven is weak and often takes longer), but all the herbs came out very bitter tasting.
If you are a family who has always raised your children on health food options like these, (assuming you don't mess the herb taste up like I did) your kids will probably like these just fine. This is not however, a recipe to offer children who are being slowly moved into healthier eating. It clearly tastes like something meant to be healthy.
I thought the breading came out crispy enough, I actually enjoyed the texture. Someone commented that the breading sticks to itself better than the zucchini and my comments to that would be 1) make sure your zucchini is drained well enough and 2) makes sure you give the egg a moment to drip off before dipping into breading. It sticks to itself because it becomes too infiltrated by the egg. I had this problem near the end when the constant dipping had transferred quite a bit of egg into the breading bowl.
Overall I personally liked it, but I will use fresh herbs next time if they are available to me or cut down on the dry. I will also add a little more parmesan, and slice a little thinner to get a more thoroughly crisped outcome.

Very good, would definitely make again. I think the key is letting the zucchini drain for about an hour. I also tranferred them to a paper towel. I ground almonds in my coffee grinder and it worked great. You need to eat them right away as they aren't good cold.

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

**Nutrient information is not available for all ingredients. Amount is based on available nutrient data.

(-)Information is not currently available for this nutrient. If you are following a medically restrictive diet, please consult your doctor or registered dietitian before preparing this recipe for personal consumption.